Safety protection devices, such as earplugs, are routinely used in consumer, commercial, and industrial environments. Often, earplugs are distributed in large volumes to a substantial number of users. For example, in a factory or manufacturing setting, earplugs may be provided to all workers and visitors in compliance with safety regulations.
Common modes of earplug distribution include box distribution and mechanical dispenser distribution. One form of box distribution consists simply of a box containing numerous earplugs placed in an open condition in an accessible area. This would include, for example, a box of one-hundred earplugs (individual earplugs or corded pairs, packaged or unpackaged) placed on a table in a work room with the box top open for access by workers. Another, more sophisticated box distribution may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,915,907 in the name of Brian Myers which granted on Jul. 12, 2005 and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This reference discloses distribution of multiple types of packaged earplug pairs through a plurality of lower access ports.
These earplug box distribution arrangements may be convenient, simple, and inexpensive. However, in the case of box distribution of unpackaged earplugs, a sanitary condition of the earplugs cannot be guaranteed after multiple user access attempts. Also, the number of earplugs distributed per user cannot be regulated. That is, a user who only needs two earplugs, may inadvertently remove three or four unpackaged earplugs from the box and then discard unnecessary plugs, thus leading to product waste. In the case of box distribution of packaged earplugs, the box arrangements do not make provision for collection, disposal, or recycling of the packaging. Thus, when a packaged earplug pair is accessed from the box, the earplugs are removed from the package and then often the package is not properly disposed or recycled (e.g., the package is left on a table, dropped on a floor, or placed in a rubbish bin instead a plastic recycling receptacle). The result is an untidy dispensing area littered with spent packaging which is not properly collected for recycling. Additionally, with this mode of distribution, the quantity of earplug packages accessed by a user is not controlled. Thus, as with non-packaged earplugs, here the user may access a handful of packaged earplug pairs when only one package is needed; additional packages may be discarded thus further wasting product.
Mechanical earplug dispensers typically consist of a hopper which contains loose, non-packaged earplugs, and a mechanical arrangement designed to release earplugs upon demand of a user. Such a dispenser is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,604,653 in the name of Timothy Millar which granted on Aug. 12, 2003 and which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. These type of dispensers provide a convenient means for accessing earplugs and can maintain the non-packaged earplugs in a sanitary condition prior to user access but they can be relatively expensive, require frequent refill, and, depending on the particular dispenser, can be prone to malfunction by jamming of the earplugs within the mechanical distribution arrangement. Moreover, these type of dispensers are typically configured to only distribute regularly shaped, non-stemmed, non-corded earplugs such as cylindrical foam earplugs. Conventional mechanical dispensers cannot handle earplugs with stems extending therefrom, nor corded earplug pairs, nor packaged earplugs, or irregularly shaped earplugs.
Other safety protection devices, beyond earplugs, include, for example, safety eyewear, respirators, ventilators, safety gloves, and various components and accessories of thereof. These safety protection devices are typically distributed on site by an open-box type arrangement as discussed above with respect to earplugs. For example, at a work site, a box containing a plurality of safety eyewear devices is simply placed at an easily accessible area, such as on a table, and the box top is placed into an open position to expose the contents therein. Users simply reach in to the box to access the safety eyewear devices. This open-box distribution presents the same disadvantages previously described concerning the box distribution of earplugs. That is, sanitary conditions may not be maintained, there is no control of the quantity of items distributed, associated packaging is not collected for recycling, etc. Mechanical dispensers of these additional safety protection devices are simply not available.
Accordingly, there is a need for a universal dispenser mechanism which can store packaged safety protection devices of any form, shape, and size (e.g., earplugs that are corded, stemmed, etc., safety eyewear, etc.), which can readily and easily dispense such devices in an unpackaged condition upon demand by a user, and which dispenser mechanism includes waste and recycling provisions for the empty packaging, where the safety protection devices are maintained in a sanitary condition prior to dispensement and where the quantity of dispensed devices is controlled.